Virginia “Ginni” Thomas, a longtime conservative activist married to Supreme Court Associate Justice Clarence Thomas, decisively closed the door on unsubstantiated claims of improper influence over her husband’s work Thursday in voluntary testimony before the House Select Committee on Jan. 6.
“Regarding the 2020 election, I did not speak with him at all about the details of my volunteer campaign activities. And I did not speak with him at all about the details of my post-election activities, which were minimal, in any event. I am certain I never spoke with him about any of the legal challenges to the 2020 election, as I was not involved with those challenges in any way,” Thomas said at the beginning of her testimony earlier today.
In March, Thomas was thrust into the spotlight of the committee’s investigation after staff leaked messages between her and former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows. According to texts published by liberal media outlets such as CNN and The Washington Post, Thomas, a private citizen, urged Meadows to stand firm after the November election as President Donald Trump contested the results.
“Help This Great President stand firm, Mark!!!” Thomas wrote to Meadows when news organizations began to call the race for former Vice President Joe Biden. “You are the leader, with him, who is standing for America’s constitutional governance at the precipice. The majority knows Biden and the Left is attempting the greatest Heist of our History.”
The texts ignited a firestorm of hysteria over Thomas’s political activism, with some Democrats suggesting conservative spouses of federal judges lose their rights to petition government or otherwise engage in politics. Several members of Congress demanded Justice Thomas be forced to recuse himself from cases relevant to the 2020 election, resign, or even be impeached. Never mind that out of the 29 of more than 2,300 text messages recovered from Meadows’ trove of data handed over to the committee, not one, according to The Washington Post, included a direct reference to the sitting justice.
“The messages, which do not directly reference Justice Thomas or the Supreme Court, show for the first time how Ginni Thomas used her access to Trump’s inner circle to promote and seek to guide the president’s strategy to overturn the election results,” the Post opined.
Marriage to a politically active spouse, meanwhile, does not itself fit the criteria for case recusal.
On Thursday morning, the conservative activist who routinely approaches lawmakers as part of her work, made clear in her voluntary sit-down with the House panel that she and her husband refrain from detailed discussions involving their work.
“I can guarantee that my husband has never spoken with me about pending cases at the Court,” Thomas told the committee in her opening statement. “It’s an iron clad rule in our home.”
“Additionally, [Justice Thomas] is uninterested in politics, and I generally do not discuss with him my day-to-day work in politics, the topics I am working on, who I am calling, emailing, texting, or meeting,” Thomas said in her testimony obtained by The Federalist.
“It is laughable for anyone who knows my husband to think I could influence his jurisprudence – the man is independent and stubborn, with strong character traits of independence and integrity,” Thomas said.
Thomas’s attorney, Mark Paoletta, said his client “was happy to cooperate with the Committee to clear up the misconceptions about her activities surrounding the 2020 elections.” He said she answered all questions that were asked of her during the hours-long sit-down with the committee.
“As she has said from the outset, Mrs. Thomas had significant concerns about fraud and irregularities in the 2020 election,” Paoletta said in a statement. “As she told the Committee, her minimal and mainstream activity focused on ensuring that reports of fraud and irregularities were investigated. Beyond that, she played no role in any events after the 2020 election results.”